Daniel Sathyadass, had the privilege of serving for 8yrs at Banaswadi Bible Church, Bangalore as the youth and music co-coordinator. His wife, Sayanora with a teaching experience of 10 years at Bishop Cotton Boys’ School, Bangalore, anchored the ministry among the women and children as well as coordinated youth dramatics at different junctures in the Church. Better known as Danny and Sayo, both of them were also involved with Trans World Radio by writing and airing various programs.

In January 2005, with only a   glimpse of the vision of what God would have them do, Danny and Sayo made the decision to move with their boys aged 8yrs, 6yrs and 6 months with much less than the basic necessities; to the affluent software hub – Whitefield, and started Sunday morning services. They experienced God’s providence step by step which was an assurance of God’s direction.

 Although Sunday services were conducted regularly, Danny was soon faced with the burden of meeting the need of those in call centres and Outsourcing companies mostly working in different time zones. A timely training in the house church model proved ideal in this situation. Adopting the House Church model in 2007, ‘Radiance’ has witnessed growth in number, and a deeper understanding and application of God’s word. 

The Philosophy of Radiance

Our definition of Church  

With all the various models that exist we especially find it hard to explain what the ‘church’ is when we don’t own or plan on meeting in a building. This section highlights how we understand the concept of church and its essence and how we try to convey this understanding to people who join us.    

The Definition of Church

 We recognize the difference between the universal church and the local church. The universal church is based on Eph 1:22-23 and Eph 2:19-22 and is defined as a group of believers who are together a body of which Christ is the head. The local church however exists in different forms. There are mega churches, community churches and smaller groups. We believe that smaller groups are more conducive to discipleship, teaching, fellowship and accountability of believers and hence have modeled ourselves as small independent groups connected through common ideas, vision and values to form a network of church groups. Each group is autonomous in that there is no central body ‘controlling’ these groups; each group takes autonomous decisions about the pattern of worship, subjects of discussion and avenues for spending the group’s funds. However we seek to maintain a network so that there would be mutual encouragement, edification and protection.

The Model

 We meet as small groups and the leaders are not necessarily ordained pastors though we do have pastors in some of our groups. Hence we emphasize the priesthood of all believers (1 Pet 2:9). We believe in communion as described in Acts 2, which is a community meal. Hence communion is distributed by one of the appointed leaders. There are no sermons in general. Each group has discussions based on a portion of the scripture or a topic that is decided by the group. Anyone from the group is free to speak aloud during the discussion and one person is usually appointed to facilitate, moderate, channel and summarize the discussion. The focus is to learn, dig deep into The Word and arrive at practical ways to apply these principles in daily living.

Having described our model of church we insist and firmly believe that this is not the only form or methodology for building people as a church and that there are other forms as mentioned earlier that can and are truly effective when guided by the right purpose.

Our Purpose – Why do we exist? 

 One of the prime reasons we have modeled ourselves as small groups is to encourage discipleship, teaching and accountability. We believe as a church we must not merely ‘attend’ services but spread the gospel which is a clear command from Jesus (Matt 28). Therefore we have a threefold ideology of our purpose to exist. We GATHER to empower and encourage each other. We GROW through discipleship and sharing. Finally we must GO out to make disciples of all nations. An important caution we have for ourselves is not to get comfortable with only the ‘gathering’ and the fellowship. 

We are your people Called by your name

We are the body you are the head

We are the building you’re the corner stone

We are the Bride you are the groom

We are the Church we are the children

We are the Lords

We are His Hands we are His feet

Let’s serve together

People without hope Because of darkness in this world

Will have new life, when we shine like stars